The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) specification 802.11ax is a specification for implementing a type of wireless local area network (WLAN) in the IEEE 802.11 set of specifications. It is designed to improve overall spectral efficiency, especially in dense deployment scenarios. 802.11ax introduces a basic service set (BSS) coloring mechanism to increase capacity in high-density WLAN networks. To improve the system level performance and the efficient use of spectrum resources in dense deployment scenarios, the 802.11ax standard implements a spatial reuse technique. Stations (STAs) can identify signals from other (e.g., overlapping) BSSs and make decisions on medium contention and interference management based on this information. When an STA that is actively listening to the medium detects an 802.11ax frame, it checks the BSS color bit. If the BSS color in the detected Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) is the same color as one that an access point (AP) associated with the STA has already announced, then the STA considers the detected frame as an intra-BSS frame. However, if the detected frame has a different BSS color than its own, then the STA considers that frame as an inter-BSS frame from an overlapping BSS. Upon fulfilling overlapping BSS received energy requirements, the STA treats the medium as busy only during the time it takes the STA to validate that the detected frame is from an inter-BSS, but not longer than the time indicated as the length of the frame's payload. Optimal assignment of BSS color in these networks is a prerequisite to obtaining improved performance in such networks.